Forest Floor

I miss the mushrooms. This year’s drought suppressed their growth. Last Fall the ground was populated by a variety of colorful and curiously shaped fungi. 

In Autumn I like to think of the forest floor as a tapestry with colors of dried leaves interwoven with mushrooms and evergreen plants. Here are three tiny, 4” x 4” gouache paintings of the forest floor, without mushrooms.

To accompany my paintings I’ve chosen some words from Suzanne Simard’s book, “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

“The mushroom is the visible tip of something deep and elaborate, like a thick lace tablecloth knitted into the forest floor.”

Field’s Edge

 September was filled with sun shiny days. I enjoyed a few hours painting at the edge of a field one day last week. Here is my 5” x 7”gouache painting along with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before and which shall never be seen again.”

Autumn

Autumn

As summer turns to fall I look forward to seeing a display of colorful leaves. Currently I am interested in the greenish - yellowish leaves of some bushes and am enjoying their playful designs.  Here are three tiny, 4”X 4” gouache paintings.

To accompany these images I have chosen an excerpt from Elizabeth Jennings’s poem called, “Song at the Beginning of Autumn”:

“But every season is a kind
Of rich nostalgia. We give names — 

Autumn and summer, winter, spring—

As though to unfasten from the mind

Our moods and give them outward forms.”

Summertime

 Summertime

Here are three tiny paintings, 4” x 4”, and three short quotes for summer.

All paintings were inspired by the flowers in our yard. All quotes are from Mary Oliver’s book called, New and Selected Poems Volume 2. 

Morning Glory

“Whatever it is I am saying, I always need a leaf or a flower, if not an entire field.”

From Mary Oliver’s poem called,

Of What Surrounds Me.

Daisy

“Everyday I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight…”

From Mary Oliver’s poem called, Mindful 

Phlox 

“Every day I walk out into the world to be dazzled, then to be reflective.”

From Mary Oliver’s poem called, Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond.

Painting Pansies

Painting Pansies

Here is a Japanese Folk Saying that I came across many years ago:

In spring, flowers

Giving off fragrance;

Seeing their faces,

I feel like

Smiling back.

Welcome Spring 2025

Welcome Spring!

I came across an E.E. Cummings poem that captures the exuberance of Spring.  The first line reads, “when faces called flowers float out of the ground “.

My current painting project started with a gift of yellow tulips from my husband. Pure painting pleasure. After the flowers faded I bought some red ones at the grocery store. They had tight buds. Then I brought home a pot  full of purply- pink ones that loved sitting by the front window. I will plant these in the yard so next year they might “float out of the ground”.

 

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Farewell to Winter 2025

Farewell to Winter 2025

I enjoyed winter this year.

Here are three paintings inspired by the woods in our yard. The winter scenes are painted on small birch wood tiles with gouache paint. All are varnished and sealed with a wax medium.

Here are some favorite photos that I took in the woods.

Our pup enjoying the snow.

Tenacious leaf

Cone moved by wind.

Hydrangea shadows